t’s safe to say that visuals are naturally more interesting and engaging to a potential customer than a block of text. That being said, most businesses that are looking to build brand awareness quickly encounter the question of what the best method of creating visual content is. Honestly, there’s no definitive answer, but we’re here to help you come to your own conclusion by presenting you with the different benefits of both photography and 3D product rendering.
What Are the Pros and Cons of Choosing Photography?
When considering photography as an option, there’s always the choice between an in-house team and hiring a photo studio. In this section, we’ll take a look at the benefits and downsides of both as well as how much it might cost.
In-House Photography Team
As with any in-house team, there’s a better understanding of your brand image and the message that your company is trying to promote. You would essentially have total control of every step of the photography process and would have the flexibility to take the shots that you want to take whenever you need them for your site or other promotional content.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t come cheap. If you’re thinking about having an in-house team, not only will you need to buy the equipment and software required to edit photos, but you’ll also need to hire a new group of employees. As great as it would be to have a team constantly available to address your visual needs, when making this decision, cost is definitely a huge factor to consider.
Hiring a Photo Studio
A benefit of finding a photo studio is that you wont have to invest in the necessary equipment that having an in-house team would call for. You’ll be able to communicate with a professional team that can help you along the way to capture the product images that you’re looking for. Not only are you paying for their services, but you’re also paying for the experience and skills that a studio has as well.
The downside of a photo studio is that each project could end up costing quite a bit of money. Even though the initial price for a project may be less than investing in a whole in-house team, having a lot of products that require photos could ramp up the cost to be out of your company’s budget. There’s also the aspect of needing to get your physical product to whichever photo studio your company chooses, and if it happens to be one that isn’t local, the shipping cost and time that it takes could become an inconvenience to your workflow. Revisions could also be an obstacle depending on how willing the photo studio is to refine the shoot to be exactly how you want it.
What Are the Pros and Cons of 3D Product Rendering?
More and more companies are looking to 3D product rendering to fulfill their visual content needs and in this section we’ll be diving into what makes this option so appealing and where it may be lacking.
Improved Marketing Efforts
With 3D rendering, a huge benefit is that a virtual model can be created long before a prototype is actually created in real life. The fact that businesses are able to raise interest in a product before it’s even released to be sold is already big enough of an appeal for many companies to opt for this method of visual content. Advertising other variations of your product, whether it be a different color or a different material for example, is also something a 3D rendering studio could quickly handle and allows for a quick turnaround when you’re wanting to get content out there in a timely manner. Customers also appreciate being able to see a realistic representation of their product before purchasing it and having a digitally-created model can even provide multiple angles for a potential customer to look at.
This being said, although 3D rendered photos are extremely realistic, there may be some people out there that would be more trusting of a photograph over a digital model, assuming they’re able to distinguish the difference in the first place.
Ability to Make Revisions
Changes are inevitable, especially during the planning and development phases for any product. Another great benefit of 3D product rendering is that whenever you may need a revision, the file is saved digitally and can easily be pulled up to be edited. Rather than needing to spend time setting up and scheduling another photoshoot for a new prototype, businesses save both time and money by having the ability to work with a 3D rendering studio to alter their product.
A potential downside of this may be the constant need to communicate with a team that isn’t in-house. Depending on which 3D rendering studio you decide to go with, this could be either an easy obstacle to overcome or a slight hiccup in your workflow. Be sure to do your research before hiring one!
So, which option is better for you?
Regardless of whatever option you decide for your visual content needs, we hope this was a helpful description of what to expect for photography studios and for 3D rendering studios! Both definitely provide their own benefits but each business is different and what you may be looking for might not be what another company is looking for. Just be sure to do your research before making your final decision and if it happens to be a 3D rendering studio that you’re looking for, we’d be happy to hear from you here at Go3DViz!
